Faith is an interesting concept that many people, I believe, don’t understand fully. I don’t think it is “blindly following a set of beliefs.” If I have faith in a person it would be because I previously had evidence of that person coming through in past experience. I once was made fun of by an “open minded” atheist for the concept of faith in god. The ironic thing was that this atheist was very interested in politics and had great “faith” in one politician in particular, but this person would never use that word for it. It showed a jaded reaction to past experiences with those who do believe in god.

Something I do believe is that you should question even if you were brought up to believe something it doesn’t mean it’s true. Truth is not always what you want it to be, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t the truth. Complacence is the enemy of truth.

i nvr understood why ppl think an omnipotent god would let them into heaven for blindly following “divine rules” as interpreted by fallible humans. wouldn’t such a god favor those who make conscientious choices and study their text (thus giving a curious atheist a better chance of “getting into heaven” than someone simply going through the motions?). why would an all-powerful god give a shit if ppl carried out silly ceremonies but didn’t live purely?

I have for some time wanted to explore Buddhism since I know next to nothing about it. However it is not near the top of my list of things I want to do in the near future. Gaining a better understanding of Catholicism, for instance, is something that is of greater importance to me right now.

I’m also curious what you mean by your last sentence. What do you mean when you say people disregard alternative thought without even thinking about why?

I’m not a Buddhist. I just think that everyone with a serious desire to understand themselves and the world around them, beyond what others tell them is true, can benefit greatly from trying some Buddhist practices. And who knows, you may very well walk away with a reinforced structure of your previous catholic views, or you may adopt an entirely different theistic position altogether.

Or you can disregard alternative modes of thought altogether. Most people do, without even thinking about why they do.